The Conseil supérieur de la langue française (Superior Council of the French Language) is an advisory council in Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, whose mission is "to advise the minister responsible for the application of the Charter of the French language on any question relative to the French language in Quebec." It works in close collaboration with equivalent bodies in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Section 185 of the Quebec Charter of the French Language

Charter of the French Language

The Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec, and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...

 establishes a Council under the name of Conseil supérieur de la langue française. It was initially created in 1977 with the adoption of the Charter.

Mandate

The mandate of the Quebec Council is to "advise the minister responsible for the application of the Charter of the French language on any question relative to the French language in Quebec."

Specifically, the Council may:

• give its opinion to the minister on any question that he or she submits;
• inform the minister on any question which the Council believes requires the attention of the government.

Powers

In order to carry out its mission, the Council may:

• receive and hear observations by individuals or groups;
• carry out or have someone carry out the studies and research it finds necessary.

In addition, it may inform the public on any question relative to the French language in Quebec.

Council members

The Council is made up of eight members appointed by the government:

• Conrad Ouellon, president
• Diane Blais, member
• Delfino Campanile, member
• Winston Chan, member
• Mélanie Joly, member
• Jocelyn Létourneau, member
• Sylvia Martin-Laforge, member
• Lorraine Pagé, member

Studies and Research

The council has conducted many studies since 1978, most of which are available online for consultation. The studies touch various subjects from linguistic human rights, language shift

Language shift

Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...

s and assimilation

Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

, language planning

Language planning

Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots...

, quality of written

Written language

A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....

 and spoken language

Spoken language

Spoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into...

, terminology

Terminology

Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...

, language demographics

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

, challenges to linguistic and cultural diversity in the era of globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

 etc.

Award

The Council awards various prizes:

• Medal of the Ordre des francophones d'Amérique (Order of the francophones of America) — awarded since 1978
• Prix du 3 juillet 1608 (3 July 1608 Prize) — awarded since 1978
• Prix Jules-Fournier (Jules Fournier
  Jules Fournier
  Jules Fournier was a Canadian writer and newspaper owner.- Biography :Jules Fournier was born on August 23, 1884, to parents Isaïe Fournier and Marie Durocher in Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec. His family was not wealthy, and Fournier attended a local parish school, where he was taught basic Latin...
  
   Prize) — awarded since 1981
• Prix Raymond-Charette (Raymond Charette Prize) — since 2000
• Prix Émile-Ollivier (Émile Ollivier
  Émile Ollivier
  Olivier Émile Ollivier was a French statesman. Although a republican, he served as a cabinet minister under Emperor Napoleon III and led the process of turning his regime into a "liberal Empire".-Early life and career:Émile Ollivier was born in Marseille...
  
  Prize) — since 2005